The Colleges : Affholter Must Cope With a Thorny Problem

Stringing every imaginable synonym for disappointment couldn’t summarize Erik Affholter’s feelings after Michigan defeated USC, 22-14, Monday in the 75th Rose Bowl.

“I felt worse after the Notre Dame game, but this is pretty close because this was my last game,” the former Oak Park High standout said. “We beat ourselves again and that kills me. It’s not the character of our team to turn the ball over.

“It’s a really sick feeling. There’s no way we’re going to have a chance to redeem ourselves.”

Affholter had a game-high 5 receptions for 56 yards, increasing his school-record total to 123.

“Personal stuff is nice, but I’d much rather win football games,” Affholter said. “What I wanted to talk about 15 years from now was how we won the Rose Bowl, but that didn’t happen, so I guess I’ll have to find something else to talk about.”

More roses: Unlike Affholter, USC junior Brent Parkinson will have another chance to play on a Rose Bowl-winning team. Still, he shared many of Affholter’s feelings after the loss.

“It’s a big disappointment, especially because now we’ve lost here twice in a row,” said Parkinson, a starting offensive tackle who played at Canyon. “We thought we could regain what we had lost in the Notre Dame game here.”

Parkinson, who occasionally had to battle Wolverine star defensive tackle Mark Messner, rated his own play as “inconsistent.”

“Messner’s really quick and a great player,” Parkinson said. “He messed me up a few times when I was run blocking.”

After the game, Parkinson greeted his former Canyon High teammate Ken Sollom, now a Michigan holder and backup quarterback.

Sollom saw action in 4 plays, holding as Mike Gillette converted 1 of 3 field goals and an extra point.

Unpolished performance: Brian Beauchemin, men’s basketball coach at Glendale College, not only had to watch his team fall to Mt. San Jacinto in the consolation final of the Palomar tournament last Thursday, he had to put up with the rather gauche behavior of Eagle forward Otis Mixon.

While tangling with Glendale’s Dave Swanson, Mixon was elbowed in the mouth.

And although he did not bleed profusely, Mixon was determined to show Beauchemin the extent of his injury. He walked past the Vaquero bench where Beauchemin was sitting, bent over and spat in front of the coach.

Beauchemin remained silent.

Later, after Mixon had collected his fifth foul, he repeated the act.

This time, Beauchemin calmly informed the referee that he “didn’t appreciate the spitting.”

“Mt. San Jacinto kids have always been bad actors,” Beauchemin said Wednesday. “He had to do what he had to do, but I didn’t need the shoe shine.”

Bad breaks: The College of the Canyons men’s basketball team suffered several losses before last week’s Palomar tournament--and not just in the win-loss category.

Forward Jason Harrison suffered a broken finger on his left hand deflecting a pass and will wear a cast until the end of the month. Steve Goldman injured his right thumb and might require surgery.

Despite those losses, Canyons defeated West L. A., 88-78, in a Western State Conference opener Tuesday night.

Easy does it: The way Larry Lopez describes it, the Cal Lutheran basketball team’s upcoming trip is an opportunity for his players to spend a few restful days together thinking about nothing but basketball.

And where will the Kingsmen go for the R & R?

Billings, Mont.--in the middle of winter.

“This will be a real good trip for us,” Lopez said. “We wanted an out-of-state trip and this will give us a chance to spend four days together and get ourselves ready for conference.”

Cal Lutheran will travel to Billings this weekend for 2 games against Eastern Montana, a Division II school, before opening Golden State Athletic Conference play Tuesday against defending conference champion Westmont of Santa Barbara.

Lopez said that he scheduled Eastern Montana for the competition and because he has trouble scheduling Division II schools to play at Cal Lutheran.

“A lot of Division II schools won’t play us at our place,” Lopez said. “I don’t really know why. I guess it’s because they feel we have too much of a home-court advantage.”

The Kingsmen are 4-2 at home.

Hot hand: Steve deLaveaga, a senior guard for Cal Lutheran, is averaging 27.1 points a game to lead the Kingsmen in scoring. DeLaveaga is second in rebounding (5.7 avg.) behind Mike Demeter, who averages 6.7 rebounds.

Guard Jeff Logsdon averages 5.6 assists a game to lead Cal Lutheran.

Steven Herbert and staff writers Ralph Nichols, Sam Farmer and Gary Klein contributed to this notebook.